Someone recently asked what I thought about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. Opinions among writers on the internet is certainly divided. Some feel there are plenty of accolades and awards for songwriters, and that Dylan has achieved more than his fair share of fame and fortune from the music industry, and that...
Tag: writing
Are You Living Your Art?
In late September, my cousin Geoffrey Beard passed away at the age of 54. He’d been battling a disease his whole life and fought it right up to the end. This was a man who passionately wanted to live and to live his art. And he did just that. Geoff was five years older than...
On Reaching Milestones
Monday I was speaking to a combined fifth-grade class about my author journey. I mentioned how I’d been identified as a good writer in fifth grade and how my teachers, family, and friends told me throughout my school years I should be a writer when I grew up. Then in my senior year, that all...
Should Artists Ever Get Political?
You know how sometimes a Hollywood actor speaks out about a cause, and the critics shout him down? “She gets paid to act,” people say, “not spout off about her opinions.” There’s a double standard when it comes to artists and politics. The message we receive is that we are “lucky” the public allows us...
New Video – An Open Apology to My Creative Self
Enjoy my newest video revisiting one of my most popular posts from this blog, “An Open Apology to My Creative Self.” Feel encouraged again to embrace your creative energy and the joy it brings to your life!
In the Company of Artists – The Benefits of a Retreat
I’m up in the mountains this week on a writing retreat with a couple of friends. We hunker down and work during the day (emerging now and then for snacks or lunch) and stop in time for dinner. As writers, we are usually holed up in our home offices writing, researching, promoting, etc. But there’s...
40 Decisions a Day
A recent study found that mothers make 40 decisions a day! That’s 280 per week. Well heck, I could have told you that. But it got me thinking about artists and entrepreneurs. We easily make a like number of decisions in a single day. Some are big and some are small, but all seem so...
Don’t Waste Your Luck
I had a bit of financial luck recently, which has given me the ability to pull back on some of my paid work for a while and focus on my writing again. While I’m wildly excited by that prospect, it’s harder to do than it sounds. For most artist-entrepreneurs, there is no such thing as...
Inspiration From Artist to Artist
If you know me, you know that part of what excites me as a creative is figuring out ways to bring my art to diverse audiences. Why? I’m a writer, after all, so why not just focus on the written word? As individuals, we like to interact with art in different ways on any given...
I’ll Sing it My Way
The other day I learned that I’ve been singing the lyrics to a song incorrectly for, like, most of my life. The song is from the musical South Pacific, and I always thought the words were, “You’ve got to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come...